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November 1996

Features

A report card on more than three thousand public elementary schools from Abernathy to Zavalla. Does yours make the grade? Plus: How Richardson’s Brentfield, Beaumont’s Pietzsch, and Mission’s Carl C. Waitz got to the head of the class.

Now that the crack epidemic has leveled off and gang violence is down, urban Texas is being terrorized by a new type of criminal: the superpredator. He murders without motive, feels no remorse, and worst of all, seldom gets caught.

Being a political consultant had its high points. I helped candidates win elections, traveled around the world, and worked side by side with James Carville and Dick Morris. But campaigns kept sinking to pathetic new lows, which is why I finally had to quit the game.

This month, a ragtag group of wanderers will descend on Hueco Tanks state park in West Texas, where they’ll spend their nights hanging out and their days hanging on to the most challenging boulders around.